When Netanyahu teaches us history
Op-ed: The prime minister may have issued a clarification on his
mufti-Hitler comments, but as far as he is concerned he made no error.
His exact intention is that we'll learn the history of the Holocaust by
reciting and memorizing, without asking difficult questions.

"In
the new state, the Kibbutzim have become a mere shadow of themselves,
and the central cities have become the centers of civilization, envied
and even hated by the periphery. That was the situation until recently.
It is now changing rapidly. On the morrow of the 1967 Six-Day War, a
new Israeli phenomenon raised its head: the settlements in the newly
occupied Palestinian territories. Their founders were
"national-religious" youth. During the days of the Yishuv, the
religious Zionists were rather despised. They were a small minority. On
the one hand, they were devoid of the revolutionary élan of the secular,
socialist Kibbutzim. On the other hand, real orthodox Jews were not
Zionists at all and condemned the whole Zionist enterprise as a sin
against God. (Was it not God who had condemned the Jews to live in
exile, dispersed among the nations, because of their sins?) But after
the conquests of 1967, the "national-religious" group suddenly became a
moving force. The conquest of the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem and all
the other biblical sites filled them with religious fervor. From being a
marginal minority, they became a powerful driving force. They created
the settlers’ movement and set up many dozens of new towns and villages
throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. With the energetic
help of all successive Israeli governments, both left and right, they
grew and prospered. While the leftist "peace camp" degenerated and
withered, they spread their wings. The "national-religious" party, once
one of the most moderate forces in Israeli politics, turned into the
ultra-nationalist, almost fascist "Jewish Home" party. The settlers also
became a dominant force in the Likud party. They now control the
government. Avigdor Lieberman, a settler, leads an even more rightist
party, in nominal opposition. The star of the "center", Yair Lapid,
founded his party in the Ariel settlement and now talks like an extreme
rightist. Yitzhak Herzog, the leader of the Labor Party, tries feebly to
emulate them. All of them now use settler-speak. They no longer talk
of the West Bank, but use the settler language: "Judea and Samaria"." (The Settler's Prussia...)

If there is a revolution, it has been completed. The national-religious Jews are already here.
"The new police chief, Roni Alsheich, completes a long series of senior
appointments in politics, in the government, in the defense
establishment and in the media of people who were raised in the
Religious Zionism movement. According to a media critic for Haaretz
newspaper, Israel's leading media outlets are also being dominated by
settler religious Jews. (...) The question which was asked only several
years ago about the appointment of Yaakov Amidror as head of the
National Security Council - how and will he pick up the phone on Shabbat
- is no longer relevant. Because "everyone" has a religious background
and telephone calls on Shabbat. If there is a revolution, it's bigger
than it seems at first sight by superficially looking at a person's
head. It could also include the "disguised religious Jews": Yossi Cohen,
the current head of the National Security Council, who may be appointed
head of the Mossad; Eyal Yinon, the Knesset's legal advisor, who has
been nominated for the position of attorney general, alongside Ran
Nizri, Yishai Beer, Avichai Mandelblit and others; State Prosecutor Shai
Nitzan; Herzi Halevi, head of the Military Intelligence Directorate;
three regular division commanders; writers and intellectuals, journalists and editors.
They all grew up in the Religious Zionism movement. (...) Those
fighting for and against the status quo in religion and state relations
come mainly from Religious Zionism. The margins of the law-breaking
settlers such as the Hilltop Youth, and those fighting them in the Shin
Bet's Jewish division, in the Civil Administration and in the State
Prosecutor's Office. If there is a revolution, it has been completed. The army is already dominated in the ground ranks, the Shin Bet with its religious chief,
Yoram Cohen, and his religious deputy who is set to become the police
commissioner, the Prime Minister's Office is filled with people in
skullcaps, and even the Likud - the ruling party - is controlled by
them. It's not just Education Minister Naftali Bennett and the
religious-Zionist party he rehabilitated, it's not just the "chardalim"
(national haredim) who make noise, and not just the military preparatory
programs which produce plenty of elite unit fighters and officers.
Raise your heads, on the right and on the left, and you'll see them
everywhere. It's not an intentional revolution, not a plan or a plot,
but the forces of nature, physics for beginners: The rule says that
wherever there is a void, others enter. There isn’t one Religious
Zionism, there are a few - liberals and conservatives, moderates and
hagglers, rightists and very few leftists. What they all have in common
is their growth course. (...) Today's Religious Zionism is a product of an all-Israeli process, in which the Zionist left lost the collective.
The togetherness with which it built and led the State. While the
Zionist center, which became the biggest in the Israeli map, lost the
ability to translate it into political power. Both are comprised of
excellent people. They go to reserve service, pay taxes, care for the
State's future. Together, they are failing - repeatedly - to do
anything. At the same time, a process was created in which part of the
secular right has turned from a Jabotinsky-style and Begin-style
leadership into a Miri Regev-style leadership. The Zionist religious
people entered this void: They make up only 12 percent of the
population, but have a much greater influence. A historical reminder of the "labor settlement" (Hahityashvut Haovedet) upon the State's inception. (...)"

The Left must not adopt the Right's Holocaust discourse
Op-ed: In Netanyahu's nightmarish world, the Jewish people are always
the victims fighting for their lives, and their rivals are Nazis. But
not every threat is existential, and one can be a huge villain without
being a Nazi.

What you don’t know about Marco Rubio The GOP presidential candidate's main patron is a
Jewish billionaire, he's hawkish on Israel and he has belonged to Mormon
and Baptist churches despite being Catholic.

We Warned You,’ Say Israeli Arab Leaders at Large Rally Sakhnin’s mayor, Mazen Ghnaim, who is also the acting head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, said at the rally: “We warned ahead of time and we said ‘stop the extremists,’ but no one listened. The Palestinian people went out to protect its rights and for independence and liberation from the occupation.

How Much Must We Hate the Enemy? In 1948 IDF officers debated the appropriateness of stoking bitter hatred of the Egyptians, as embodied in the 'battle pages' by poet Abba Kovner, who wrote: 'In the stream we will march. In the stream of our invaders' blood.'

Blame This Intifada on Facebook The very social media driving the Palestinian-Israeli violence could wind up being the fatal weakness of the Third Intifada: It is a tool of the very young, and very unorganized.

WATCH: Settlers hurl burning tires, boulders at Palestinians Hundreds of settlers launch dozens of attacks against Palestinians across the West Bank, in the wake of two Palestinian attacks that left four Israelis dead. Rights groups demand the army intervene to protect Palestinians from settler violence.

President's wife put under guard
Due to possible incitement against President Rivlin on social media, a
personal security detail has been assigned to his wife Nechama. (...)
Hagai Amir, brother of Yitzhak Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir, was arrested
last week on suspicion of incitement against Rivlin. "Rivlin is a
sycophantic politican," Amir said in a Facebook post.